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Drum Section

Bateria

: The

Soul of Brazilian

Carnival Parade

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Since the first signs of life, still in our mothers womb, humans start to exist within

rhythms: our own fast heart beats and naturally, of our mothers. Artur da Tvola (1936-

2008) distinct writer and poet in Brazil once remarked: the rhythm is definitely the

most primitive of our sensorial experiences. Thus, it follows us through our lives and it

stands for the basic assumption of vitality, since when its over, life has ended. In

samba and carnaval, the analogy is the same. Following this spirit, theDrums Sectiondefines the existence, flow and conclusion of any parade, event, or rehearsal within

Brazilian Carnaval. The rhythm means the force is animated, alive, just like the

primal rhythms of the past. Likewise, the section in Carnaval events where we find the

most powerful energy is surely around the Drums.

This is the energy we will try to describe on these pages below. To simplify translation

issues, we are using the term Drums Section (of a samba-school) for the Brazilian

Carnaval term Bateria. In this introductory discussion about the Drums Section, we

will go over the following aspects: early days, the samba rhythm,origins of the samba

instruments and the distribution of drum section instruments within a Samba-School.

Great photo of the Drums Section from Rocinha Samba-School at Rios parade.

Photo Credit: Agencia FOTO BR - Protected by Law

As we know, samba and theBrazilian Carnavalmusic have Negro origins. The roots

are notoriously African. Historian Juana Elbei dos Santos in the book Nags e a

Morte, says: all sound formulation is born as a synthesis, as third element provoked

by interaction of two kinds of genitors: the hand or stick beating the leather of the

drum, the stick beating the body of the agogo The resulting sound is the product of a

dynamic structure, in which the appearance of the third term creates the movement. In

all systems, the number three is associated to a movement. Rhythm is the

organization of sound in time. And moving to thesamba drumbeat, the syncopation,

its main rhythmic characteristic, was clearly inherited from African roots.

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From Primal Africa to Samba Beats

Always pulsing in a binary beat (2/4), the Samba-School Drums section - Bateria is a

perfect orchestra, formed exclusively by percussion instruments (in samba bands, which

are different by nature, brass instruments are permitted. Please see samba bands

definition.) The Bateria is not just the combination of several types of percussioninstruments, but the distribution of in leather sub-groups. These groups beating in

unison bass and treble sound, promotes a special design to the rhythm.

Below, the exotic shekere , a true African and samba instrument. Many samba

instruments were incorporated over the last 20 years.

Photo Credit: Agencia FOTO BR - Protected by Law

Early Samba Percussion Instruments

At first, the percussion/drum section instruments used in samba were very poor and

simple. They were in essence real imitations of tribal African drums, inherited from the

slaves and produced by local artisans in Brazil. These pioneer samba instruments, at

first used very rustic materials like leather, wood and nails. The leather skin used as

drum heads was taken from cats. (After the drying and stretching, they were fixed

with nails in barrels and wood squares.) These were still the first days of samba

instruments; 1905-1940. The tuning, as another example of early experimentation, was

done by heating and molding the drums in fires made of old papers. The sound,naturally, was not good. In the 1930s, Vizinha Faladeira, a prominent samba-school at

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the time, innovated buying French barrels to improve their surdos the most common

drumming instrument within a samba-school drum section(throughout time, wood

was substituted by metal and production was industrialized.)

In early century Rodas de Samba (Informal Samba / Percussion sessions - see

definition), tambourines were already present. They had the form of a shovel, but theycould also be square-, hexagon-, and octagon-shaped (made out of wood with the

leather heads fixed by nails). Later, they were replaced by more modern ones, being

rounded and metal produced. The panderos, since their introduction to samba, went

through the same transformation process as the tambourines, and evolved considerably.

(Today they are mostly used as instruments for juggling in Samba-School Drum

Sections.)

An excellent still shot from Vidal of a "tamborim" fromBeija-FlorsDrums Section!

Photo Credit: Agencia FOTO BR - Protected by Law

Essential in every roda de samba, the old cuca made out of a barrel, were also one ofthe first samba instruments. They were made out of wood, and later were replaced by

silver or golden sparkling metallic cylinders, where the cuca players can now obtain

more varied sounds. Also present at these early drumming sections, was the reco-reco,

which was made of bamboo or animal corns with stretched spring. It produced a very

screechy sound that gave lightness to the drums section (see under the Samba

Instruments tab, full definition and photo for every samba-percussion instrument used

in Brazilian Carnaval.)

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Baterias Improvements

Slowly, small improvements were made in samba instruments. As example, animal

leather used as drum heads started to be substituted by nylon heads during the 60s. One

of its main disadvantages was the water resistance (animal leather was not tolerant to

rainy days.) In fact, wet leather caused a sound loss and became weak over time. On theother hand, the sonority produced by nylon heads sounded somehow artificial

definitely not the same produced by original leather heads. Still on 60 and 70s,

samba percussionists who preferred using leather heads, used a common technique of

bathing the leather heads with linseed oil to avoid damages caused by rain. Another

trick was to mix nylon and leather heads, leather in one side of the instrument, and the

nylon on the other side. As you could see, everything was rustic and non-industrialized

until very recently, on the origins ofsamba-schoolbaterias.

Calabashes with nets made of beads, metallic rattles, agog (brought by the Yorubas)caixas and taris, used in the cordes and ranchos were also used in first Drum

Sections. Joo da Baiana (1887-1974), and Cabur, two of the first samba personalities,

were responsible for introducing to samba the pandero and reco-reco, respectively (both

original from spiritual candombl ceremonies - see Wiki).

Physical Distribution of Percussionists in Samba-School

The percussion instruments are carefully grouped in the Bateria and generally are

distributed according to the First Directors Mestre de Bateiras request. There is a

common rule though that every Drum Section Director takes into account: heavy

instruments do not mix with the light instruments. In a samba-schoolparade or event,heavy instruments always stays stationed behind and the light ones in front of the

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Drums Section.

According to the conductor Milton Manhes, who is a musician and samba

percussionist from Imperatriz Leopoldinense Samba-School Drums Section: The

first surdos consist of the essence of the Drums Section within a binary beat. They

comprise three types: the first surdo (first beat) and stronger, like the C in thecontrabass; the second (also called response surdo), performs the cello in a Symphonic.

It is less strong and is tuned as A or B in the contrabass. The third surdo is in between

both, but also called surdo de corte. Its tune is similar to the drum. The tune in the

contrabass is the F.

Below, the energy of a percussionist using a chocalho, a typical samba instrument.

Photo Credit: Agencia FOTO BR - Protected by Law

When the Drums Section is large, there is the need of putting the first and second

surdos closer, they stay on the same side and the caixas and/or repiques are arranged

between them. The third surdos, or balance surdos, are distributed among the first and

second surdos, and their functions are to balance the first and second, and provide the

needed swing. The repique surdos or repinique (the smaller) perform a variety of

rhythmical beats and the taris and caixas are responsible for the counterbalance.

Light instruments in a samba-school bateria or carnaval band add rhythm and treble

too.

Similar to an orchestra, there are moments in which all instruments are being played,

and others in which just one of the groups perform. For example, when the samba

starts, everybody plays, in the second part, the heavy instruments almost make silence,

becoming the light ones more intense. The tambourines and rattles stop, the other

instruments may keep playing.

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When similar instruments play rhythmical drawings at the same time, enjoying the

samba syncopation, we have what we call conventions.The conventions that are

most widely performed today are played by the tambourines.

Following is a chart that displays the arrangement of the percussionists in a bateria. It

shows more or less how the 200+ members of thebateriamarch in the parade, usuallystarting with the lighter instruments. As described before, the heavy surdos are in the

middle for stability.

Samba Drummers, apart from being the heart and soul of the parade, sometimes they

have to wear strange costumes, like the one below! Note how this Cuica is played.

Photo Credit: Agencia FOTO BR - Protected by Law

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